Dime will be in the building all week for the 2012 Pac-12 basketball tournament to drop some knowledge on you about multiple, epic fails of NCAA Tournament hopes and Ernie Kent’s drink of choice.

*** *** ***

Now they’ve really done it. If you had asked me before the Pac-12 Tournament to make some predictions, I wouldn’t have guessed any of the following.

1. Oregon State upsets No. 1 seed Washington in the Huskies’ first game.2. The three top seeds fail to make the championship game.3. Colorado wins it all.

Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised about how wildly insane it all went down. After all, this was a season where no team looked like they wanted to pull away from the pack. In the end, the parity of the conference tournament only shows that the Pac-12 is really as bad as we all thought in the non-conference. The NCAA selection committee is not going to do Pac-12 teams any favors, especially considering how squads like Cal, Washington and Oregon screwed the pooch in tidying their resumes for consideration as at-large teams.

Still, the storyline of the Buffaloes downing Arizona 53-51 in an ugly, defensive battle is a fantastic one. Saturday’s championship match-up was fun because it was two teams that, while not that talented, have a ton of grit.

Best of the day
The Buffaloes were led by two Cali boys playing back in their home state. Freshman Spencer Dinwiddie scored 14 points and senior Carlon Brown had 13. Two of Brown’s points came with 55 seconds to play, and CU clinging to a four-point lead. He blew by a defender and Arizona’s defense had a major breakdown. Seriously, it was like everyone got out of his way as he rumbled down the lane, launched and cocked back his hand for a monster dunk.

After going all windmill against Cal the night prior, Brown has become my pick for being a sleeper to make it in the NBA. He’s 6-foot-5, 215 pounds, and while not a high scorer at 12.6 a game, can lock down on D.

“I just want him to finish them,” Colorado coach Tad Boyle said. “Now Carlon’s banged a few off the back of the rim, but I’m telling you what, big players make big-time plays, on big-time stages. I think what you saw out of Carlon Brown these last four games is he’s a guy who kind of put this team on his shoulders. And those windmill dunks are just icing on the cake.”